Anvil Island

Anvil means many different things to different people, but for me, Anvil is ALL about the rope swing. I spent pretty much every waking hour here, especially when mom and dad were busy doing other stuff

Dad being busy:

Other than the rope swing, i really liked seeing fireworks for the first time, making new friends (you know who you are!), climbing on the ropes course, jumping on the water trampoline, but best of all - going out in the speedboat. Woohoo - i could not get enough of that!!



PS Mom - i know the wetsuit wasn't the bargain it might have been...but it was SO worth it

Kindergarten Field Trip

Instead of going to school this morning, i met all my classmates and Miss Bruckner at the Kits rink for a field trip.

Some of my friends had never been skating before, whilst others could already skate backwards and do turns and stuff. After we'd all done some practising, mom got out the hockey sticks and we tried to have a game.

I spent some time passing the puck backwards and forwards with my friend Laleh

here's my friend Evan looking pretty good

sunny friday !

who needs school anyway....everything i really needed to know i learned on the mountain!!

 

mom and i sneaked off for a last day on the slopes before they closed for the season. crazy...there's more snow now than there has been all winter, and it was SO much better in the sunshine than it was last weekend.

i spent a bit of time waiting for mom

 

we made snow angels

 

there was SO much snow my skis got stuck

the only downside was the ridiculously long lift lines.....NOT!

 

Skiing on Fridays is the BEST

Snowy Saturday

For our family day today, mom and ollie went to West Vancouver to go on an Easter egg hunt, while dad and i headed up Mt Seymour.

We packed the car and drove up the mountain, to be greeted by a whole lot of white:
Unlikely as it looks, we did do a couple of runs before giving up for the day. I really wanted to go on the Easter egg hunt like Ollie.

Dad and I eventually caught up with Mom and Ol on the beach with a giant Easter Bunny. Mom looked cold and Ollie looked miserable. It turns out they hadn't had such a great morning either: the so-called egg hunt wasn't so much a hunt as the opportunity to stand in line at a dozen different shops waiting to be handed one tiny chocolate egg - the kind you buy in a dollar store.

After one brief climb of a tree we all retired to Starbucks to regroup, as it was too cold to spend long on the beach.



We decided to head for home, but got distracted en route by the Park Royal shopping mall, somewhere i don't think i've ever been before. It turned out to have loads of snowboard and skateboard shops in, as well as the kind if stores grown-ups like.
We drove around for a while looking for a parking space, and eventually found one right at the end of the Mall. We entered through the nearest door, right across from a store called West 49. It had a sign outside saying you could win a Techdeck, so we HAD to go in.

After dad had finished looking at longboards, we found some skateboards at the back of the store. Mom and dad were asking the guy lots of questions about what size board i should have, and that kind of stuff. Eventually he reaches behind the counter and produces a board that used to belong to one of the girls who works there. She'd found it in the bottom of her closet and asked the guys in the store to find someone deserving to give it to. They chose ME!!!

I could not BELIEVE it. My very own skateboard. I was just a little bit excited. Too excited to speak in fact. I couldn't wait to get home and try it.




....all before dad had finished unloading the car!

Seattle centre

Sometimes it's the unexpected things that are the most fun.

We went to the Seattle Centre to see the Space Needle. My friend Ethan sent me a postcard from there a while ago, so i wanted to see it for myself.

Dad really wanted to take my photo with the postcard but first of all there was a tree that really needed climbing




I did finally relent and let dad take his shot!


But the unexpected fun was the incredible fountain. There were speakers around the side of the bowl playing classical music, and the fountain kind of danced in time to the music. When the music was loud the fountain shot huge jets of water into the sky, with just gentle trickles when it was quiet. This was really funny when the music suddenly went loud, and all the kids that were standing too close got REALLY wet.



Ollie kept a very safe distance from the water.


After all that excitement it was definitely time to head back to the hotel. We had a swimming pool we needed to investigate!

Big breakfast and Smith Tower

I could not believe my eyes when we went downstairs for breakfast this morning. There was a lady eating two chocolate doughnuts for breakfast. TWO!! Mom wouldn't let me have that, although she did sneak one (or maybe more than one...) into her bag for me to have later.

There was cooked breakfast and cereal and porridge and muffins and bagels and toast and fruit and yoghurt and juice and everything i've ever eaten for breakfast.
Dad cooked himself a waffle which looks pretty yummy doesn't it?
Mom did try and take a photo of out first and second breakfasts but we ate it too quickly. I did anyway....but you might notice mom brought her mug with her from home so she could have a decent sized cup of tea.

Anyway....once we'd eaten enough to burst we set out exploring. Dad and I went up the Smith Tower. It was so cool!
Once we got outside we were really high up, and we could see for miles. You can just see the Space Needle in the distance. That's where we're headed next.

Sopwiths in Seattle

Friday was mom's birthday, and she had the best birthday EVER!

Instead of going to school on Friday morning we all got in to the car and drove to America. It was a LONG way. We had to wait at the border crossing for hours and hours, and when we got there Ollie's passport had expired. Oops. Fortunately mom had his birth certificate with her, so we were all allowed to carry on with our trip.

We'd had such a long wait that everyone was super-hungry so we stopped at Red Robin in Bellingham for mom's birthday lunch. Somehow they knew it was mom's birthday, and all the staff came and sang to her. I'm not sure she appreciated it all that much, although the ice-cream sundae they presented her with made up for at least some of the embarrassment. Red Robin doesn't have a play place, so after we'd finished lunch we sneaked into McDonalds across the street to play there for a while before we had to get back in the car.




It was almost 4pm by the time we finally got to our hotel, the Residence Inn on Lake Union. Mom got a great deal on priceline which made her happy. Dad was pleased we had a suite so he didn't have to share with me. Ollie and i loved running along the corridors and the ginormous breakfasts, but more of that tomorrow.


We stopped at the hotel long enough for mom to have a cup of tea and a birthday cupcake, and then we headed out to the childrens' museum at the Factoria Mall in Bellevue. Maybe i'll let Ollie tell you about that! oliversopwith.blogspot.com

late night visitor

i've had a wobbly front tooth for a long time now...ever since i crashed head first into a railing last summer. the dentist was a bit worried it might all get a bit yucky, but other than a rather wonky gap between my teeth there was no problem except a wobble.

mr crisp had a 'lost tooth' chart for the kindergarten kids last term, and lots of my classmates had teeth fall out before christmas...but not me...i STILL just had a wobbly tooth......

but yesterday at teatime there was something really crunchy about my toast! i opened my mouth and found i was trying to eat my own tooth. that's GROSS!

Mom helped me clean it up, and we put it under my pillow in a little red envelope. When i went to sleep, i put my arm under my pillow to make a little space for the tooth fairy to get in. Good job she's so small and not frightened of tigers.

Next thing i knew, it was 5.30am and Ollie was screaming. He'd fallen out of bed, but managed to get his leg stuck in the process, so he was dangling from his bed upside down. Mom came in and rescued him, but by that point i was wide awake.

I looked under my pillow and found a super-shiny dollar coin AND a lego race car that glows in the dark. I was far too excited to go back to sleep so i got up really quietly and went and made my lego car in the kitchen. Of course after doing that much construction work i was pretty hungry, so then i made myself some breakfast before turning on the TV. I'm getting pretty self-sufficient in the mornings these days.

still - i can't wait for my next tooth to fall out. i think i'm going to get three presents next time.